Having not read the thread in it’s entirety (sorry!) I wanted to chime in for what it’s worth from my personal experience.
Insurance companies are very similar to gambling in many ways, however the payouts are very much influenced by human activity.
I once read a article along the lines of “Confessions of an Insurance Adjuster” where he stated that whenever he offerred a client a settlement amount and they accepted it, he actually felt bad. He expected, and even wanted them to start a negotiation process so that he could offer them a respectible sum.
Gambling does not have this discrepancy as it is strictly numbers-oriented, and has no gray area. Insurance on the other hand does - what with insurance fraud and whatnot.
As much as I (the sysadmin - automate everything - type) would like to say that humans are not necessary in the insurance industry, that is just not true. There must be human interaction to resolve debates and conflicts.
That is not to say that it can’t be decentralized. That would indeed solve many of the problems inherant in the system today. In fact, I intent on continuing (in some form or another) to pursue my insurance career in hopes that I can marry the decentralized, automated process along with the human interaction necessary in that industry. However, it will be at least several decades until the point is reached where I am comfortable with the industry to support it’s expansion.
Insurance has been (and will be) around forever. It’s only a matter of time before it catches up with fault-tolerant technology, and I definitely want to be there when it does
Not really. Only the fact that insurance companies deal with risk and optimize their grants/fees by probabilities doesn’t mean that they have the same business model as a casino which is what you are apparently trying to argue.
While insurance companies deal with money only, the main difference between insuring and gambling is that the person who insures him/herself is not going to be paid in the currency he /she invested in case of ‘winning’ (ie. having cancer, JACKPOT!) Actually you are only (sonetimes) paid in the currency when you DON’T ‘win’ in form of premiums.
Aside from many other differences, particularly legal ones, you can imagine what would happen if your life insurance would be a freely tradeable asset. If not, nevermind. Most importantly, the outcome would cause the insurance company not ta have a deal with you.
Hedgefonds turn insuring into gambling with lethal effects and appearently their propganda works quite well (“aww…come on it’s just the same”)
If you have a turkey and I have about $30 and we flip a coin as to the chance that heads you get my $30 and tails I get your turkey for dinner either way the “jackpot” is not going to be in the same currency. One person could get food the other person could get money even though the relative value is the same. You could make a bet on the outcome of a sports game with your friend that if one team wins they take your family fishing and if the other team wins you throw a barbecue. Gambling isn’t all casino style and done in the same currency you know. It’s about playing the odds not necessarily winning back the same kind of money you invest.
What like trading your debt away to someone else? Yeah actually I can imagine that. Which is part of the risk of getting involved in such ventures. Which is also why I think making such bets is insane, especially over such a long term but hey people do it. Moreover law does not apply on SAFE. So if we were to create a gambling app people COULD take out any kind of gamble and since you don’t know if people are betting on a game of pool or their lives one needs to make debts equally tradeable. If you’re afraid of having your debt or wager traded away then simply stipulate that as part of your agreement, that they may not trade your debt or insecurity. But I’d imagine that would increase the amount of risk to the one taking on the wager.
Basically what you’re saying is there is no difference save for some legalize and symantics which is what I was suspecting from the start.
Both is an exchangeable good, life and health is not. You get the point. Or not. It doesn’t really matter. This is again one senseless dialogue that is going off-topic and it doesn’t matter whether you or I choose to disagree, so let’s leave it here…
Actually it is otherwise we wouldn’t have doctors asking for money for their services or people willing to gamble with their lives to get “health insurance.” Come to think of it you exchange money for your health every time you go to the grocery store as you need food to live. I agree that asking for money when one’s life is at stake could be argued as to not be the most ethical thing to do but it still is done routinely regardless. I also agree we seem to be at a philosophical crossroads here that would drive the conversation off topic so for the time being might as well cut it short here and continue with the topic at hand which is can a gambling system actually be built.